Freeze, Survive, Advance

Through three very cold afternoons and even colder evenings, they played the 10 Section III girls soccer semifinals to set up this weekend's championship games in Chittenango, creating memorable games - and memorable scenes, too.

Anyone brave enough to go to some of these games on Tuesday and Wednesday saw snow flying through the air, turning the turf into sheets of white with the consistency of sand. Oh yeah, and the wind blew 20 miles an hour or more. It felt like late January, not late October.

For all the trouble, though, we still have a delicious set of title games ahead of us - and much better weather in the next two days to go see them.

Only in Class AA have the top two seeds made it to the final round. But even that required CBA to withstand blowing a 3-1 lead late in regulation before Caitlin McConnell's overtime goal produced a classic 4-3 win over defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse. Then Baldwinsville, in a sea of snow, needed Amanda Wolgemuth to score with less than two minutes left to avoid overtime with Liverpool and get a 1-0 decision.

With the improved conditions, the Bees have a lot more maturity, experience and depth than the Brothers. Yet CBA is downright explosive, and it will take the best effort of a terrific B'ville defense to keep every one of those talented forwards contained.

They got in both Class A semifinals on Tuesday, with wildly varying results. Top seed and defending champ Cortland rode Aubrey VanGorder's four goals to a 5-1 romp over Fulton at Chittenango, before the worst of the snow hit. That snow did show up at West Genesee, turning Jamesville-DeWitt's game with Chittenango to a crawl. But Tori Nies got a first-half goal before it got too crazy, and the Red Rams won 1-0.

So J-D is enjoying its first-ever appearance in a sectional final, but is a decided underdog. Cortland, with its full lineup present, has crushed everyone (CBA included) late in the season and has outscored two playoff foes 11-1. You think the Purple Tigers are a bit interestsed in making the state final four at home?

Each of the Class B semfiinals at Corcoran turned out to be 1-0 warm-up acts for a much bigger main event. Marcellus got off to a very slow start against Cazenovia, but used its depth to wear down the resistance of the injury-ravaged Lakers. Westhill, after waiting two days for the weather to improve, used the same method to scrape by Watertown IHC.

So on Saturday night, the Mustangs and Warriors meet again for a sectional title. They've done this a few times before. Were it not for Westhill interrupting the run in 2006, Marcellus might be going after a sixth straight sectional title. These two teams have the oil-water relationship all figured out. Marcellus won both regular-season meetings. Will the third be different?

Nothing in the entire sectional playoff grid is more misleading than Utica-Notre Dame's no. 13 seed in Class C. Having played A and B teams all year on good terms (going 9-8-1), the Jugglers have laid waste to higher seeds - 4-0 over Beaver River, then Thursday night's 3-0 breakdown of top seed Thousand Islands.

Having disposed of the Frontier League's best, the Jugglers will get its shot at no. 2 seed Sauquoit Valley in the finals. Sauquoit has been terrific so far, its latest example a 2-0 semifinal disposing of Mohawk, but UND is bound to be the aggressor, and it's paramount that Sauquoit establish something against the Jugglers early.

Over two days, the Class D title game was figured out. First, McGraw ended the reign of defending champion Lyme in a 2-1 overtime verdict at Corcoran. A day later, top seed Remsen saw its dream of a perfect season and a 19-game win streak ended by Old Forge, the Eskimos feeling right at home in the cold with a 1-0 win.

The Eagles bring a lot of firepower to Saturday's championship game, plus a hunger to get back to what it considers its rightful place at the top. Old Forge is on a roll, though, having knocked off two state-ranked teams (Hamilton and Remsen), so beating a third wouldn't be a complete stretch, right?